After less than a year in office, Donald Trump has done more to restore America’s relationship with Israel than in the 8 years of the previous administration. These days, supporting Israel is a dangerous proposition for anybody from governments to institutions, to organizations all the way down to individuals. Over the last few decades, Israel has become a pariah state in the Middle East and much of the rest of the world. Supporting the Jewish State is often seen as racist or colonizing.

Lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians appears as the Holy Grail of global diplomacy. There hasn’t been a US President since the rebirth of modern Israel in May of 1948 that hasn’t endeavored to bring peace between Israelis and Arabs in the volatile Middle East. They all tried different methods, and they all pretty much failed, even if some degree of success was attained, like the Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel under Jimmy Carter.

Donald Trump is probably the most controversial and the most vocal President in the history of the United States. We are even seeing more polarization in America than what we experienced under the Obama administration. Yet in spite of all this, Mr. Trump remains a strong supporter of Israel in many ways, while still seeking to remain an influence on a Middle East peace process, if at all possible. Amazingly, over 75% of US Jews did not vote for nor support Mr. Trump. Here are a few of Mr. Trump’s recent moves related to Israel:

At first glance, some would accuse Mr. Trump of favoritism towards Israel, maybe blaming the fact that some of his family members are Jewish. But there might be another reason why the current US President shows so much support for the Jewish State, and that one has a biblical foundation. Vice-President Mike Pence has been very open about his beliefs. As an evangelical Christian, he understands that the Bible is replete with positive references about Israel and Jerusalem. Is it possible that Mr. Pence’s biblical worldview might be influencing President Trump? I am not implying that America has now turned into a country led by evangelicals, but what if, for the first time in decades, there was a strong biblical influence in the White House? Some even believe that President Trump has become an evangelical Christian himself.

One doesn’t need to be a supporter or opponent of the Trump administration to admit that Israel is very important to our current President. Is it true love or biblical obligation? as we can read in the Abrahamic Covenant of Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, I will curse him who curses you,” God made a covenant with Abraham promising to bless those who bless his descendants through Isaac and Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel, i.e.: The Jewish people. If indeed, Mr. Trump chooses to align his foreign policy towards Israel with biblical truth, he is fulfilling the Abrahamic Covenant. Time will tell how God will bless Mr. Trump and even America, but the biblical promise of blessings received for blessing Israel eternally stands. Thank you, Mr. Trump!

Little did Lord Arthur Balfour (1848-1930) know when he penned his declaration, that much of the world would be in an uproar about it, 1oo years later. His short letter to Lord Rothschild on behalf of the Jewish people became a pillar in the foundation of the modern state of Israel. The 1917 Balfour Declaration established that because of the “historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine,” The Jewish people were entitled to return to the area. The statement was unequivocal: “His Majesty’s Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object.”

The Balfour Declaration is a document that should have been foundational in the world’s recognition of Israel’s right for self-determination within the boundaries of her own historical and biblical land of Eretz Yisrael. It was followed by another equally important but lesser known agreement including the original Balfour text, known as the San Remo Resolution, where the Mandate for Palestine was drawn together (land boundaries were decided four years later.) As a result of the San Remo Resolution being drafted, Great Britain ended-up being responsible for the drawing of the Mandate and land boundaries for Palestine. This became later known as the “British Mandate for Palestine,” and led to the 1947 United Nations vote in favor of Resolution 181 and the partitioning of Palestine between Jews and Arabs. It must be noted that the term “Palestine” as used in the Balfour Declaration and San Remo Resolution, is merely the name of a Middle East geographical boundary known as the Land of Israel today. The word then was not as politically charged as it is today. On May 14, 1948, under the leadership of David Ben Gurion, one day before the end of the British Mandate, Israel became a modern nation. Within hours five neighboring Arab countries declared war on the newborn Jewish state, and Israel has been in a state of war ever since.

I cannot help but think of the different outcome we would have witnessed if Israel had been reborn out of the San Remo Conference of 1920 instead of 1948, but it was not part of God’s plan. Israel’s right to self-determination was agreed upon 97 years ago and shouldn’t be put in question. God remains sovereign over all. Much water has gone under that bridge since and history appears different today. But the reason why it seems changed is that the agenda for Israel’s destruction has been pushed harder since the mid-60s. Palestine is no longer just the name of a geographical area to be restituted to the Jewish people, but it has been made into a country with displaced people painted as the sole victims of the Middle East conflict.

We are now in November 2017, precisely 100 years after the Balfour Declaration was penned. As it is so well described in the Bob Dylan song, Israel is now overwhelmingly seen by the world as “The Neighborhood Bully.” the tiny Jewish state is the constant target of various governments, organizations, celebrities and church denominations because they believe that Israel is the problem in the Middle East. And so, the Balfour Declaration–and by proxy Israel–is under attack!

Israel’s foes are looking at the Balfour Declaration as a declaration of war against Palestinians. We are told that “Palestinian victims” mourn the loss of their “native” land. The narrative goes on, and the world goes along for the ride. In reality, since 1917, Israel had repeatedly agreed to split the land into two states. Even in 2000, at Camp David, when it could have been a political and existential disaster when Ehud Barak agreed to give away more than 95% of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip, Arafat said NO! Every single time, the Palestinian leaders delivered an emphatic NO to the two-state solution, and that is because it is not an option for them. The only viable option as they see it is a Palestinian State with no Jews at all. And as frustrating as it might be, it is becoming the majority opinion globally, because today when it comes to Israel and the Jewish people, fact-finding is the last thing that people are interested in! Not to mention the many prophecies that were fulfilled in 1948 when Israel was reborn. Here are some of these prophecies from the Tanach:

1. Jacob’s descendants would regain control of Israel – Amos 9:14-15
2. Israel would be brought back to life – Ezekiel 37:10-14
3. Isaiah spoke of an Israel being reborn in one day – Isaiah 66:7-8
4. Israel would be re-established as a united nation – Ezekiel 37:21-22
5. The second Israel would be more impressive than the first – Jeremiah 16:14-15
6. Ezekiel predicted when Israel would be re-established – Ezekiel 4:3-6
7. The people of Israel would return to “their land” – Ezekiel 34:13
8. God would watch over the people of Israel – Jeremiah 31:10
9. Israel’s army would be disproportionately powerful – Leviticus 26:3, 7-8
10.The fortunes of the people of Israel would be restored – Deuteronomy 30:3-5

The Balfour Declaration has become a thorn in the flesh of our politically correct western societies. They want it gone as one more step towards the collapsing of Israel. I would suggest that in and of itself, that Declaration makes a strong case for the self-determination of Israel based on its biblical pre-existence. Compounded with the San Remo Resolution of 1920, it picks up a lot of momentum that is also reinforced by a plethora of Bible passages. In other words, the Declaration only validated from a human perspective what the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had vindicated long ago from within His divine decree. David Ben Gurion expressed it well when he appeared before the Peel Commission in 1937 :

“I say on behalf of the Jews that the Bible is our Mandate, the Bible which was written by us, in our own language, in Hebrew in this very country. That is our Mandate. It is only recognition of this right which was expressed in the Balfour Declaration – David Ben Gurion

Much of the world communities are still applauding French President Emmanuel Macron for the bold statement he made during the 75th Anniversary of the Vel d’Hiv round-up in Paris on July 16, 2017. In the summer of 1942, (July 16 and 17,) over 13,000 French Jews were gathered by force inside the Paris winter stadium (Velodrome d’Hiver.) The move was ordered by the Nazi regime out of Germany and the orders executed by the French Vichy government militia under the leadership of Marshall Philippe Pétain. It led to the deportation of these 13,000 french Jews as part of the killing of a grand total of 78,000 French Jews during the Holocaust.

It has remained a dark stain in the annals of France’s history since World War Two. As a matter of fact, many French presidents until Jacques Chirac (President from 1995-2007,) preferred to avoid the subject of the Vel d’Hiv round-up. Diametrically opposed to Mr.Macron, we find the leader of French Front National, Marine Le Pen who declared that France was not responsible for the horrors perpetrated by the Vichy government.

The 2017 Ceremony was the first time both a French President AND an Israeli Prime Minister attended the Vel d’Hiv Commemoration. Mr. Macron spoke boldly and declared that not one German was involved directly, thus exonerating German guilt and shifting the blame where blame was due. But these words, as powerful, bold and healing as they might be for some of the parties involved–namely the Germans and the families of the Jewish victims– raise a few questions.

I cannot help but wonder if Mr. Macron spoke boldly against antisemitism, exonerating German guilt in the Vel d’Hiv round-up, so that he would solidify France’s relations with Germany? Mr. Macron is a self-declared centrist who has ties to the French socialist government. He is also a globalist, interested in the Eurozone while his opponent, Le Pen wanted to exit the European Union. Mr. Macron needs strong ties with Germany to fulfill his agenda of “euro-globalism,” and his desire to strengthen Europe. He has vowed to lift the state of emergency in place since early 2015 as well as adjusting and strengthening the laws against terrorism and radical Islam. This is–to say the least– a delicate balance between personal freedom and national security that, in my opinion, will be greatly hindered by a globalist approach. Time will tell, and hopefully without the loss of additional innocents lives.

And yet, with his bold presence at the Vel d’Hiv Commemoration, I cannot help but think that as honorable as it was, it is always easier to to agree with history in hindsight, rather than to make history. In our day and age, who would argue with the evil acts of Nazi Germany and even the Vichy government? On one hand, no one with integrity would attempt to vindicate or even exonerate the Nazis for barbarism against 6,000,000 Jews and other victims. On the other hand, it is a bit more complicated to point a politically incorrect finger at the perpetrators of a new breed of contemporary antisemitism taking place on Mr. Macron’s watch. It is always easier to point at those who did rather than those who do!

Additionally, Mr. Macron met with Mahmoud Abbas at the Elysée Palace, days before he met with Mr. Netanyahu. He reiterated his desire to achieve peace in the Middle East and condemned what he called “Israeli occupation,” clearly showing his position in the conflict as well as a certain lack of understanding of the facts.

Dear Mr. Macron, I don’t think that you can have your proverbial “Middle East cake” and eat it too . Genuinely fighting antisemitism, lifting the state of emergency, dialoguing with the terrorist head of the Palestinian Authority and keeping French citizens safe, while allowing France to be a relevant part of the European Union seems to be a very tall order, and one that is filled with contradictions. Something has got to give!

We live at a time when Jewish people are being accused of dwelling unnecessarily on the memory of the Holocaust . But at the same time we are seeing swastikas being painted on doors, walls and even tombstones, globally.

Mahmoud Abbas was unanimously re-elected as leader of Fatah and the West is supposed to get excited about the man who they believe could make peace with Israel. Let us not forget that he is a Holocaust denier and has written his thesis in 1982 on that very topic under the title: The Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement.

Populist parties are gaining tremendous ground in Europe as the desire to stop and control the migrant crisis becomes a priority. With them, they bring the deep rooted European racial antisemitism that we thought was defunct.

It was only a couple of years ago that I was on the streets of Paris hearing people marching and chanting “Jews to the ovens.” It really seems that a lot of people are either denying the Holocaust, wanting another one or worse… are clueless about the first one!

I don’t think that we speak too much of the Holocaust but I think that we don’t speak about it in its proper context.

Scholars, philosophers, theologians and historians have all grappled with the Holocaust, trying to come to terms with the immensity of its evil in strength and scope. Some within classical Jewish religious thought believe that the Holocaust was God’s retribution or “pay-back” for Israel’s sins. In other words, it was God’s desire to discipline Israel for her sins and as such, was part of God’s plan all along.

The common name for it is Mi-penei hata ‘ einu (Hebrew for “because of our sins we were punished.”) It refers to Divine punishment for the sins of Israel. It is true that the Tenach is replete with stories about the sins of Israel and their consequential discipline from God.

Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize laureate, Elie Wiesel wrote in 1962 of the religious Jewish reaction to the Holocaust in Commentary Magazine: The feeling of guilt was, to begin with, essentially a religious feeling. If I am here, it is because God is punishing me; I have sinned, and I am expiating my sins. I have deserved this punishment that I am suffering.[1]

Wiesel, along with many others, feel that while the punishment inflicted by the Holocaust might not be proportionate to the sins committed by Israel, but they are related. Incidentally, if one believes that–as the Bible teaches–the price for our sins is death (Ezekiel 18:4), then the Holocaust could be justified. But why would God wait almost two thousand years to punish Israel, and why inflict pain and suffering on generations that are so far removed from the previous ones?

Others will see Israel as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 52:13-53:12. They will assign the suffering of the Holocaust to all Israel (all Jewish people.) While it is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the meaning of the Isaiah 53 chapter, it’ll simply be stated that this controversial passage definitely speaks of suffering, humiliation and death in no uncertain terms, but it can also refer to a person and not Israel as a whole. If indeed it refers to a person in particular, Yeshua of Nazareth is the only one who would fit that description, especially since towards the end of the passage after humiliation, suffering and death comes resurrection.

Some speak of Hester Panim (“hiding of the face,”) also known as “the eclipse of God.” Psalm 44:23-24 speak of God hiding His face: Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not reject us forever.Why do You hide Your face And forget our affliction and our oppression?

Was God absent during the Holocaust? From the standpoint of protecting the victims from suffering and death, it would certainly appear to be true. Each and every one of the six-million innocent victims–if they could speak– would most likely testify of God’s absence or lack of involvement.

Yet, when we speak of the eclipse of God, we must recall what an eclipse is all about; a visual disappearance while the physical presence remains. In other words, God might have been eclipsed or might have been hiding His face during the Holocaust, but He was always there and always within reach. Not always was He there, but He felt the pain of the victims as Isaiah 63:9 tells us: In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them,

Many religious people, Jewish and gentiles ended up in the camps. If God was silent, some of His people weren’t. The eclipse of God was not because He didn’t care but possibly because for a time, He removed Himself from the affairs of men, leaving the fate of many in the hands of a few. At the very least, He allowed for the Jewish people not to be under His protection like He had done repeatedly in the long history of the children of Israel.

Isaiah tells us that God cared as he suffered affliction for His people. Additionally, God took no pleasure in the death of the many. Even assuming that Israel was being punished by the Holocaust for being wicked–a case that cannot be made with absolute certainty– the prophet Ezekiel speaks of God when he writes: Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.

Maybe the Holocaust is simply the proof that God is dead. That is the conclusion made by most Jewish people who survived the Holocaust or were born after 1945. Again Elie Wiesel, this time in his seminal work Night, depicts the agonizing hanging of a young boy: “Where is God? Where is He?” someone behind me asked…. For more than half an hour [the child in the noose] stayed there, struggling between life and death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face. He was still alive when I passed in front of him. His tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed.Behind me, I heard the same man asking: “Where is God now?” And I heard a voice within me answer him: “Where is He? Here He is—He is hanging here on this gallows.”[2]

But if God died during the Holocaust, why did it come to a halt in 1945? The Nazi war machine was well oiled and extremely efficient. The liberation of the Camps and the capitulation of Germany would militate towards God not being dead and on the contrary being instrumental in the end of World War Two. This is also in line with His promise to never completely destroy Israel as found in the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 31:35-37.)

I could continue to look at the Holocaust and wrestle further with causes for it. Regardless of how many approaches with come up with, we will most certainly come back to evil being at the core of the “Catastrophe.”

This lead us to the problem of evil. The existence of evil in the world is something that is highly debated. Very few believe that evil doesn’t exist. The Holocaust and how low humanity could bring itself were a proof that evil exists.

Hitler wasn’t insane, which would exonerate him of all responsibility for the “Final Solution to the Jewish problem.” Hitler was pure evil! But even when we recognize that, the source of all evil still has to be identified.

I don’t believe that we can properly do such a thing without building our case on a biblical foundation. Morality is based on the balance between good and evil which is best brought forward by looking at what the Tenach says.

Good and evil cannot exist independently of one another since one defines the other. Going back to the very first book of the Tenach, Genesis, we find out that one of God’s most special angels, Satan, rebelled against God and fell from grace. From that point on, he has been working very hard at hating what God loves and loving what God hates. That puts the Jewish people and Israel directly in his crosshairs.

He knows that through the Jewish people, more specifically through the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:10,) will come the Redeemer of mankind, the Messiah of Israel. His goal is to stop that from happening, because at some point in the future, Messiah will put an end to Satan’s career and he doesn’t care for his retirement plan.

I am often asked if the birth of the modern state of Israel is a direct result of World War Two and the Holocaust. I believe that the answer is NO! Rather, the Holocaust was an attempt by Satan to destroy the Jews right before they would start fulfilling one of God’s most amazing prophecy about their return to their biblical land (Ezekiel 36-38.)

There is no doubt in my mind that Satan was aware of the return of the Jews to Israel in the End-Times. He had to stop it, or at least try, thus the Holocaust. He used Pharaoh to try to stop Moses from being born, he used Herod to try to stop Yeshua from being born and he used Nazi Germany and Hitler to try to stop the Jews from moving back to Israel and fulfill God’s covenantal promises. Satan exploited the fact that the Jewish people weren’t under God’s protection and were more at the mercy of the nations to attempt their total eradication. He almost succeeded but God is greater. Not only God is greater but He is interested in every single soul that exists. God wants to draw them to Him, one soul at a time.

So again, it is not that we speak too much of the Holocaust, but maybe that we speak of it in the wrong context.

99 years ago, a very important document was written in the United-Kingdom by foreign Secretary Lord Arthur James Balfour to the leader of the Jewish community Baron Walter Rothschild. It has become known in history as the “Balfour Declaration.” The text of that letter reads as follows “I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet. “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.”

The Balfour Declaration is a document that has been foundational in the world’s recognition of Israel’s right for self-determination within the boundaries of her own historical and biblical land of Eretz Yisrael. It was followed by another important agreement including the original Balfour Declaration, known as the San Remo Resolution, where the Mandate for Palestine was drawn together (land boundaries were decided four years later.) As a result of the San Remo Resolution being drafted, Great Britain ended-up being responsible for the drawing of the Mandate and land boundaries for Palestine. This became latter known as the “British Mandate for Palestine.” Fast forward to 1947 and the United Nations voted in favor of Resolution 181 and the partitioning of Palestine between Jews and Arabs. On May 14, 1948, under the leadership of David Ben Gurion, one day before the end of the British Mandate, Israel became a modern nation. Within hours five neighboring Arab countries declared war on the newborn Jewish state. One way or another, this war has been going on for seventy-seven years.

This would be a very bold move to make, even if we were dealing with to people groups fighting for territory. Britain might have been involved in initiating the agreement, but whatever took place after the United Nations voted for the partitioning of the region, even if it was connected to the Balfour Declaration, remains the responsibility of Israel and her Arab neighbors. Dan Margalit of Israel Hayom says “But the Balfour Declaration didn’t exist in a vacuum. The world supported it. Even King Faisal of Iraq, whose family originated in Saudi Arabia, reached an agreement with Weizmann on the terms. The declaration was approved in 1920 by an international conference that met in San Remo after World War I. The approval of the mandate by the Council of the League of Nations in 1922 gave the Balfour Declaration international validity, almost like the 1947 U.N. resolution to establish a Jewish state in part of the land of Israel.

But here is a bigger problem; Palestinians didn’t exist in 1917 (Balfour), 1920 (San Remo), 1924 (San Remo Land boundaries), 1947 (UN partition vote) and 1948 (Israel’s Declaration of Independence.) As a matter of fact, Palestinians didn’t come onto the scene as a “people” until the mid 1960s. So in essence, Abbas is retroactively inserting the Palestinians into history to justify the injustice he is claiming took place in 1917 and subsequent years. It is akin to quoting Abraham Lincoln saying: “Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet”, except that the latter statement is funny because it was made tongue-in-cheek. Abbas is dead serious about the Palestinians going way back in history.

The original Palestinian was invented, forcibly placed in Israel as a “displaced refugee” and further coerced into staying through several generations, born within the refugee camps and/or territories. Palestine went from a geographical area to a political agenda aimed at the complete destruction of Israel and the Jewish people. It took about fifty years to get where we are today. The current acceptance of the Palestinian narrative has become the new normal and is used as the foundation to historically justify a lawsuit against Britain for the Balfour Declaration. That justification doesn’t rest on factual history but this will not stop the PA from proceeding with the suit.

So what is next, a law suit against Italy for the San Remo Resolution of 1920? What about suing the United Nations for allowing Israel to become a modern nation in 1947/48? I suppose the Palestinians could even go as far as suing themselves for signing the Oslo Accords in 1993! Taken to an extreme, they could sue God Himself for giving the Land of Canaan to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants (Genesis 12:7, 13:15, 15:18-21, 35:9.) After all, it looks like God started it all! Ironically, for once the Jews are not being blamed and I’ll take that as a small victory.